One of the joys of growthbusting has been the discovery that living lighter on the planet is very consistent with other values I’ve come to embrace in my quest to live a fulfilling and meaningful life. A constant goal in my life is to be present in the moment, stepping out of the frantic thought patterns that come with life in pursuit of the high-consumption American Dream. Rick Heller has made this connection and has created a website, www.seeingtheroses.org, and a series of videos to help others discover joyful living doesn’t require an iPad, iPod, iPhone, iMac, a Lexus and weekends in Cabo or Vegas. Today’s commentary in our Limits to Growth 40th anniversary series is from Rick.
What the World Needs Now
Ian Johnson on Limits to Growth and The Club of Rome
We’re in the middle of a series of demonstrations, essays and videos related to the topic of limits to growth. This is to recognize the 40th anniversary this year of the landmark Limits to Growth study, first published in March of 1972. That study was commissioned by The Club of Rome and conducted by a team of scientists at MIT.
For some reason, The Club of Rome has not become a household word. Most know almost nothing about The Club or the origins of the study. I met The Club of Rome’s Secretary-General, Ian Johnson, at an event The Club co-hosted with the Smithsonian early this month, Perspectives on Limits to Growth. Here’s a brief part of the conversation we had:
Limits to Growth – What is the Club of Rome?
This is day two of our exponential growth demonstration. I hope you’re doing this at home or school or the office. We began two days ago with one grain of wheat. Yesterday we doubled the wheat, and here’s what we got…
Today let’s double that. Here’s a quick summary of Limits to Growth, courtesy of the Club of Rome. Be patient while it loads, and don’t click below on “Click to Play;” for some reason WordPress is not making life easy for me today.
So, what is this Club of Rome that commissioned the Limits to Growth study in 1970? It is actually a pretty amazing and forward-looking group of people. It sprang from an April, 1968 meeting of academics, industrialists, diplomats and other leading thinkers at a villa in Rome. They were invited by Italian industrialist Aurelio Peccei and Scottish scientist Alexander King (King appears briefly in an historical clip in the GrowthBusters movie.) At the villa they discussed the predominance of short-term thinking in international affairs and concerns about increasing resource consumption in what was becoming a global economy.
GrowthBusters Australia Tour – Report 1
I thought I’d interrupt the series of posts honoring the Limits to Growth 40th anniversary today, as tonight I leave Australia and head home after two weeks of GrowthBusters screenings, great audience response, intelligent conversations and warm friendship. I regret I did not get to see every Australian who has supported and cheered on the GrowthBusters project, but on the plus side I made several new friends.
Had lunch yesterday with successful Australian businessman, Dick Smith, a growthbuster if ever there was one. Dick is fond of saying,
“We can’t have perpetual growth in the use of energy and resources.”
He thinks that’s just common sense. We talked at lunch about how most people agree, but for some reason they can’t make the next logical step, to thinking about whether this would be a good time to say, “Okay, that’s enough.” As we were saying goodbye, I ambushed Dick with my pocket video camera and he offered this greeting:
You may see Dick at the Sydney screening of GrowthBusters next Tuesday night. Screenings remain for Sydney, Perth and Darwin.
Limits to Growth – Rex Weyler vs. Ronald Reagan
“There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”
– U.S. President Ronald Reagan
“Oh, yeh?
– Greenpeace International co-Founder Rex Weyler
What more can I say? This is a moment from a wonderful interview with environmental leader and journalist Rex Weyler. Filmed in June, 2010 for the GrowthBusters movie, but did not make it into the film.
I’m on day seven (missed yesterday) of my exponential growth demonstration. If you’re trying this at home, double the grains of wheat in your container. We had 32, so now we’ll have 64.
Dave Gardner
Filmmaker